NEW YORK – In response to a lawsuit filed by the State of New York which alleges that his online Trump University was nothing more than a scam to defraud its students, millionaire real estate developer and reality TV star Donald Trump fired back with claims that defrauding students was the school’s reason for being, and that the practice taught them very valuable lessons about the cutthroat life of business.
“In the world of high powered real estate, you have to be able to identify fraud and deceit – and that is what we offered,” said Trump. “Lesson number one – if someone offers you an introductory course in real estate for $1,600 – and then just uses that to upsell you to more expensive educational packages some with ridiculous names like Trump Elite and costing close to $35,000, you should smell a scam right away.”
“There is old saying that there is no teacher like experience,” Trump continued. “And by being exposed to the classiest, A-1, top-notch fraud around, Trump University students are taught a lesson they won’t soon forget.”
The $40 million dollar lawsuit also says that while the school promised individual instruction and one-on-one advice from instructors handpicked by Trump until a student closed a real estate deal, most had nothing to show for their efforts but thousands of dollars in debt and a picture with a cardboard cutout of Trump.
For his part, Trump believes that this incident is a good instance of leading by example. “Diversity is key. Just look at me -everyone knows that I am an old pro at – somehow – losing money while owning casinos, having had to file for bankruptcy protection four times. But do I rest on my laurels? No. As this lawsuit shows, I’ve expanded my portfolio to include ethical bankruptcy as well.”
Ken Pruitt, of Tuxedo Junction NY, who is named as one of the complainants, says that while the whole experience has cost him over $25,000, he has learned valuable lessons about working with people in business. “It’s been a real eye opener. I haven’t been this disappointed since I enrolled at the Don King Institute of Wealth Management. ”
“If you can’t trust Donald Trump,” said Pruitt,“who can you trust?”
